The Fountain City Council heard a proposal from Ace Telephone representative Ethan Webinger that would expand their Internet service to the Fountain area during the regular February city council meeting last Thursday night.

Webinger explained Ace Telephone is looking for an opportunity to lease space on the Fountain water tower and looked to the council to see if that would be an option. Webinger described the process of wiring up to four Internet masts on the water tower, with each one approximately four feet tall and four inches wide.

Councilman Jim Schott noted that AT&T already has phone masts on the tower. Councilman Bryan Ostvy said the city engineer would have to check out the space to see if Ace's proposal would work. Webinger commented that any equipment from Ace Telephone would not interfere with AT&T's, as far as frequencies were concerned.

The city would receive between $250 and $350 per month for the space lease with another $50 per any additional mast. The Internet service would improve greatly in Fountain and the service radius could extend as far as 10 miles in any direction. Webinger let the council know that any package offer would include Internet only.

The council approved Ace Telephone to take a look at the space on the water tower and to also put together a business package and contract for review at the next council meeting.

Trail Days

Ronda Flattum updated the council on the current ideas for advertising for Fountain Trail Days. It is still uncertain whether Trail Days will get off the ground in 2013 and Flattum told the council she "needs to know what to advertise" as multiple organizations are requesting information for their spring/summer visitor guides.

Councilman Chad Wangen said he thinks Trail Days isn't going to happen, but that there will be a tractor pull the same weekend that it would normally be.

Schott said a lot of things have changed in regards to what people expect of the weekend. He suggested perhaps it could be a one-day event, maybe on a Saturday.

No decision was made on the status of Fountain Trail Days, but the council approved Flattum to go ahead and advertise the tractor pull.

Police report

In his monthly police report, Police Chief Tom Mosher alerted the council of a nationwide scam that had victimized people in the Fountain area. The scam wasn't "anything new," according to Mosher, but tracking the criminals is near impossible.

The scam starts with a phone call with the scammers saying they are a large company that owns the credit card processing machines that are purchased by stores across the nation. They persuade one to invest money in the company, claiming that every time a card is run through one of their machines, a very small percentage of the money is returned to the investor.

The scammers give out numerous emails, phones numbers and addresses for communication purposes. This contact info works until the scammers receive the money and then emails bounce back, busy signals are reached, and addresses lead to the middle of nowhere.

Mosher said the FBI, the state attorney's office, and every police station in the state had been contacted about this scam. The victims, who were not named, had invested $30,000 into the scam.

Mosher also reported on some suspicious activity at a home just outside of town. The homeowners reported seeing footprints in the fresh snow around their house on Jan. 8. A sudden increase in burglaries in January also has local law enforcement on alert. Abandoned houses seem to be the main targets, Mosher explained, but a couple of lived-in houses in both Wykoff and Spring Valley were burgled with thefts and damage reported.

Small items

In other business, the council handled the following items.

 Liquor licenses were approved for both the Bent Wrench and Los Gables, Inc.

 Clerk Flattum presented the council with several examples of dog kennel applications in response to the Fountain resident who owns more dogs than the city's ordinance allows without a license and kennel.

 The council received a quote for a service check on the two lift stations the city has for their sewer system. The servicing would cost $180 per lift station, per year.